Hearing assistance devices include a variety of devices such as assistive listening devices, cochlear implants, and hearing aids. Hearing aids are useful in improving the hearing and speech comprehension of people who have hearing loss by selectively amplifying certain frequencies according to the hearing loss of the subject. A hearing aid typically includes a microphone, an amplifier and a receiver (speaker). The microphone receives sound (acoustic signal) and converts it to an electrical signal and sends it to the amplifier. The amplifier increases the power of the signal, in proportion to the hearing loss, and then sends it to the ear through the receiver. Cochlear devices may employ electrodes to transmit sound to the patient.
Wireless communication technology such as Bluetooth provides hearing assistance devices, such as hearing aids, with capability of wirelessly connecting to host devices for programming, controlling, and/or streaming audio to the hearing assistance devices. Such host devices may be implemented as dedicated host devices or implemented in general-purpose devices such as telephones, television sets, computers, and music players. To provide a listener with sound reflecting a realistic acoustic environment using multiple hearing assistance devices, such as a pair of hearing aids for the listener's left and right ears, there is a need for providing wireless communication between the host device and each of the hearing assistance devices as well as between the hearing assistance devices.